Infrared reader

Reader
hardware

Figure 1.1. IR reader
Schematics

Figure 1.2. IR reader
hardware

The small cubical magnets hold the reader in place.

USB is best suited to connect the infrared front end to a
computer device since it offers 5V power and virtual comports
chips. Small modules are available that prevent dealing with
surface mount devices:

Figure 1.3. USB
interface

Finally everything gets packed together in a 3d printed
case making use of scad and slic3r.

Figure 1.4. Complete

Reader
software

The initial baudrate is 300 and could be increased after
the energy meter has announced its maximum baudrate. However
to have this working reliable, the IR reader must support
different baudrates for receiving (new baudrate) and still
able to request the higher baudrate using the initial 300
baud. Most hardware as the used USB device used do not
support having different baudrates for receiving and sending.
So the readout must be performed at the slow 300baud.

The python3 script readmeter.py is
readmeter-0.1.tar.gz and has a man page readmeter.html

To write it into a file it is typically used as:
./readmeter.py -cq >
<name>.txt